Unemployment rate 4.2% in 2017

Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate in 2017 was 4.2%, according to the latest data released by the Census and Statistics Department yesterday, which showed 8.6 million people are economically active with a slight rise in the level of female participation to 36.6%. 

Releasing a communiqué on the labour force statistics for the year 2017, Department of Census and Statistics Director General Dr. A.J. Satharasinghe said that the estimated unemployment rate for 2017 has been 4.2%.

Unemployed persons are defined as persons who were not working, and if they were looking for work, have taken actions to find a job and are ready to accept a job, given an opportunity during the next two weeks.

The working age for Sri Lanka is defined as age 15 years and above. The total working age population who are employed or unemployed during the reference week is identified as the economically active population or labour force. The estimated economically active population is about 8.6 million in 2017, of which 63.4% are males and 36.6% are females.

Labour force population expressed as a percentage of the working age population (age 15 years and over) is the labour force participation rate (LFPR). The survey results reveal that the overall LFPR for 2017 is 54.1%, and this is 74.5% and 36.6% for males and females respectively.

Persons who worked at least one hour during the reference period, as paid employees, employers, own account workers, or contributing family workers, are said to be employed. The estimated employed population is about 8.2 million for 2017, of which about 45.5% engaged in the Services sector, 28.4% in the Industry sector and 26.1% in the Agriculture sector. 

Accordingly, the highest employment share is in the Service sector and the lowest employment share is for the Agriculture sector. The survey further reveals that 67.5% of the employed population works over 40 hours per week. 

The Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey (LFS) is designed to measure levels and trends of employment, unemployment and labour force in Sri Lanka. This survey has been conducted quarterly, since the first quarter of 1990. LFS 2017 is the 37th year of the survey series. The Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) has released labour force statistics of 2017, based on a sample of 25,750 housing units.